Mortality rates among young Americans ages 1 to 19 have risen to their highest level in nearly 15 years, The Wall Street Journal reports. Among the leading causes are homicides, drug overdoses, car accidents and suicides, the article said.
Young Americans are dying at an alarming rate, reversing years of progress, The Wall Street Journal reported.
For decades, advances in health and safety have steadily reduced mortality rates among American children. Now, however, rates have risen to their highest level in nearly 15 years. Among the leading causes are homicides, drug overdoses, car accidents and suicides.
An analysis of federal mortality statistics by Stephen Wolf, director emeritus of the Center for the Study of Society and Health, found that between 2019 and 2020, the overall death rate among U.S. residents ages 1 to 19 increased by 10.7 percent, and by another 8.3 percent over the next year. This is the highest increase in half a century in two consecutive years.
According to a global analysis of mortality by Christopher Murray, director of the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington, other developed countries, including the United Kingdom, Germany, Canada and Norway, have also seen increases in youth deaths, although the spikes have often been concentrated in narrow age groups or among members of the same sex.
Meanwhile, the U.S. is the only country among similarly situated states where firearms were the leading cause of death among young people.
Suicide rates among Americans between the ages of 10 and 19 began rising in 2007, and homicide rates in this age group began rising in 2013. The increase went largely unnoticed at first, as overall child and adolescent mortality rates were still declining over the years.
Penicillin and other antibiotics reduced deaths from bacterial infections in the years after World War II, and vaccines brought deadly viruses such as polio and flu under control. More reliable cars, seat belts, and car seats made driving less dangerous. Bicycle helmets, smoke detectors and swimming lessons have reduced fatal accidents. Medical advances that save premature babies and cure leukemia and other cancers have helped many survive once fatal diagnoses.
But when the pandemic began, suicide and homicide deaths among young people increased. Fatalities from drug overdoses and transportation accidents, mostly from traffic accidents, also increased significantly.
The coronavirus, which was the third most common cause of death in America during the pandemic, was responsible for only one-tenth of the increase in deaths among young people in 2020 and one-fifth in 2021, according to Wolf’s study.
Doctors and public health researchers say school closures, cancellations of sports and youth activities, and restrictions on personal communication have exacerbated the growing mental health epidemic among America’s youth. Experts say social networking sites, which have replaced successful relationships with an online thirst for social attention that leaves young people unsatisfied and sends them to sites that justify unhealthy behavior like eating disorders or self-cutting, have added fuel to the fire.
Demand for mental health services and other types of psychological support far exceeded supply, resulting in young patients going to emergency rooms that were already overburdened with COVID-19 patients.
To some extent, writes The Washington Post, the rising death rates among young adults mirror the trends seen among adults.
Mortality rates among middle-aged white Americans began rising in 1999, mostly due to suicide, alcohol abuse, drug overdoses and chronic liver disease, although mortality rates among blacks and Hispanics declined during the same period.
In 2020, U.S. life expectancy fell by 1.8 years, the largest decline since at least World War II. This was not only because of the coronavirus outbreak, but also because of an increase in deaths from homicides and unintentional injuries, including drug overdoses.
Increased gun ownership during the pandemic and scandals involving police, including the killing of George Floyd, have increased distrust of law enforcement in the United States, researchers say. This, in turn, has prompted some people to resort to deadly forms of “street justice” instead of calling the police, the article notes.
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